Wolverine Athlete Spotlight: Richard Funk
1/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Senior captain Richard Funk is the subject of this week's Wolverine Athlete Spotlight. The Edmonton, Alberta, native dissects this Saturday's showdown with No. 12 Ohio State and the emotions surrounding it being his final home dual meet.
Q: What sorts of emotions are you feeling heading into Senior Day on Saturday?
A: It's definitely bittersweet. Everybody on the team is getting pumped up for the meet, but at the same time, it's our second to last dual meet ever. It's a weird feeling. When you're a freshman, you think dual meets are hard, but when you get to the end, you wish you had more of them. It's sad, but I'm still excited and determined to swim fast on Saturday.
Q: Is there anything you can do to prepare yourself for what it will be like?
A: If there is, I don't know what it is. It's going to be a unique feeling. Getting recognized for your time here is something that happens only once. We had a small class, which brought us that much closer together. It's going to be fun and exciting to go out with this group of guys.
Q: Does it make it even better because it's Ohio State?
A: Absolutely. In past Senior Days, the coaches have put together relay teams made exclusively of seniors. This year, we don't even have enough to do that. Not sure if they'll try. At the same time, it's senior day, at home, against Ohio State. It doesn't get much better than that.
Q: You mentioned how small of a class this year's group is. How close did you guys become?
A: Unbelievably so. When we came in, there were five swimmers and four divers. Then we lost three divers sophomore year and two more people redshirted, which brought us down to three swimmers, one diver and one redshirted diver. Total of five. That's pretty close. It makes me care about these guys that much more. It's been a great three-and-a-half years so far, but we still have work to do.
Q: With all that you guys have accomplished, have you taken a step back to understand it all? Or does that happen later?
A: I was just joking about this the other day, actually. Of the three swimmers in our class, I'm the only one that doesn't have an NCAA record to his name. Bruno was on the 200-yard medley relay in 2013 and Justin was on the 800-yard freestyle relay last year. We've had some success in swimming, but in that standpoint, I'm the weakest link. It's actually pretty cool. We have close to 20 NCAA All-America awards between the three of us. I don't know if any other class has averaged that many in their history. We've been able to grow. We didn't come in highly touted. We just worked hard, developed and ended up being pretty successful.
Q: You've got one more championships season coming up. How do you want to end it?
A: We've won three straight Big Ten titles as a class. When you have a streak going, you never want to see it end. Then with NCAAs, it's just finishing as high as we can as a team. We think a top-three finish is a reasonable expectation. It's definitely something we've been working toward all year.
Q: But before you even get there, you've got a pretty good team in Ohio State coming in on Saturday. What's it going to take to get a win?
A: First, they're a very good team. Their top-end guys are swimming great and have already put up a lot of best times this year. It's going to take a total team effort. They're very well-rounded. They don't have a weak event, but I don't think we do either. It's going to be a competitive, toe-to-toe match-up. Every event will be competitive. I expect it to be a championship-like atmosphere. It's always a great rivalry. I'm looking forward to it.
Q: Is it good to face a team like this before you head into championships?
A: I think so. We're coming off a first semester and training trip where we didn't show a lot of our potential, but we've done a lot of great work since then. Now, we finally feel like we're hitting our stride. We're getting to the point where people are going to start to see what we're capable of. Our potential will start to show.
Communications Contact: Brad Rudner (734) 763-4423
